BROOMFIELD -- Former Broomfield High teacher Travis Masse looked straight ahead Tuesday as a jury, having just spent three full days deliberating the ex-wrestling coach's fate, declared him guilty of sexually assaulting an underage student.

Masse, 29, had no visible reaction to the verdict, but he mouthed some words of encouragement to his parents in the front row of the courtroom as he was led away by police officers and taken to Broomfield County Jail.

His conviction -- on a charge of sex assault on a child by someone in a position of trust and a charge of sex assault on a child by someone in a position of trust with a pattern of abuse -- carries a mandatory life sentence, though he'll be eligible for parole in eight years.

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for July 21.

"Why did this have to happen?" said the victim's father, whom the Camera is not identifying because his daughter was a minor when she was sexually assaulted. "I considered him someone I trusted -- hopefully he can still change."

The father, standing outside the courtroom doors after the verdict was delivered, said there were "more victims."

"There are no winners here," he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

Masse, who led Broomfield High's wrestling team to the Class 4A state title in 2009, is scheduled to go on trial May 16 on a charge of attempted unlawful sexual contact with a child, involving another one of his former students.

His family and his lawyer, Pamela Mackey, declined to speak to reporters after the proceedings.

Jury struggled with the verdict

Tuesday's verdict came after a four-day trial last week during which several of Masse's former students took the stand to testify that they had exchanged raunchy text messages with their teacher.

One of those students, who was also Masse's wrestling manager, said the texting began when she was 15 and included the exchange of nude photos. She said it eventually led to sexual contact -- at a Broomfield reservoir and during three out-of-town wrestling tournaments.

The prosecution introduced phone records that showed the pair had exchanged nearly 9,000 texts during a three-month period at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009.

Masse, who took the stand in his own defense, admitted to inappropriately texting his student, who is now 19, but insisted he had no sexual contact with her.

The jury of seven women and five men clearly struggled in their efforts to reach a verdict. By Tuesday afternoon, they had spent more time deliberating the case -- 24 hours over four days -- than they had spent listening to witnesses and looking at evidence at trial.

In the morning, they submitted a question to District Judge Thomas Ensor asking whether they could find Masse guilty of sex assault on a child by a person in a position of trust without finding that any of the four alleged encounters -- which would go toward establishing a pattern of abuse -- were proven.

The judge told them no.

What's next

May 16: Travis Masse is scheduled to go on trial on a charge of attempted sexual contact with a child, involving another one of his Broomfield High students.

July 21: Masse is scheduled to be sentenced on his Tuesday conviction of sex assault on a child. He faces mandatory life in prison, with a chance of parole after eight years.

"In order for you to find the defendant guilty, you must find, by unanimous vote, that one or more of the specific incidents was proven," Ensor wrote back. "And you must all agree on which incidents are proven."

In order to also convict Masse on the pattern-of-abuse charge, Ensor instructed the jury it had to find him guilty of having sexual contact with the student in at least two of the incidents.

Ultimately, the jury found that the prosecution had proven that sexual contact occurred in three of four instances -- in Masse's car at Anthem Lake in Broomfield and at wrestling matches in Elizabeth and Huntington Beach, Calif. -- but not at a wrestling tournament in Grand Junction.

It's the pattern-of-abuse charge that leaves Masse facing a life sentence.

Former Boulder prosecutor Trip DeMuth said Colorado, like many states, restructured its sentencing in the mid-1990s to create much longer sentences for many sex crimes.

"There are some very heinous sex crimes, so it all depends on a case-by-case basis, but there is a concern by many that the current sentencing laws can result in sentences that don't fit the crime," he said.

Trial with a twist

Masse's trial largely consisted of testimony from former Broomfield High students with whom he had texted sexual messages and from fellow coaches who testified that they never noticed any suspicious behavior on the part of their colleague.

But the trial took a wild turn halfway through when a statement by Boulder Valley School District Superintendent Chris King that he had given his eighth-floor hotel room key to Masse during the January 2009 California wrestling tournament came to light.

The victim in the case had testified the previous day that she had sex with Masse in an empty room on the eighth floor of Hotel Huntington Beach.

While the former student told the jury she couldn't recall exact dates and times of when she was intimate with Masse, she remembered the incident itself clearly.

"I remember it was in California on the eighth floor, and I remember that very vividly," she testified.

Judge Ensor said the time for introducing discovery had passed and that allowing such an allegation into the trial at such a late date would deny Masse his due-process rights. King, who had been subpoenaed by the prosecution to testify, never took the stand, and the jury never learned of his allegation.

"There's no joy in any of this for anyone, but I think it's justice, and I think it's deserved," King said after the verdict.

King told the Camera he still doesn't know if anything happened in his hotel room, but he knows that Masse had access to an eighth-floor room.

"It's uncomfortable for me on a number of levels," he said. "I know the victim. I know the victim's parents. I know the perpetrator. I know the perpetrator's parents. I traveled with the team on a number of trips. It's very personal, and it's tragic."

Don Quick, district attorney for the 17th Judicial District, issued a statement late Tuesday condemning Masse's failure to act responsibly in his role as teacher and coach.

"The defendant was convicted of a crime committed while in a position of trust, and that is just what happened," Quick said. "He represented that he had consideration and care for the victim, but the evidence was to the contrary."

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